Shops and shopping

Going shopping is a part of our everyday life. For some people it’s a pleasant pastime while for others it’s an everyday routine. Some people like doing shopping and they are happy if they can pick up a bargain in the sales, for others yawn while walking along the shelves in a shop. But whether you like shopping or not you have to do it because it’s a necessity. I’d like to say that at present shopping has become more exciting than it used to be several decades ago. Today people do a lot of shopping or at least window-shopping every day, because all necessary facilities are provided for them. In large cities and even in small towns there are all kinds of shops and stores as well as supermarkets.

Supermarkets are big self-service food shops (and not only food nowadays) where one can buy a lot of goods cheaper than at a local grocer’s. When people go to supermarkets or other large food stores they are often looking for bargains. By the way these shops are brightly lit and usually well laid out; pleasant music is always playing while you are walking along the shop. The goods are tidily arranged on trays and long endless shelves on which various prices are clearly marked. The shelves are well stocked with a wide selection of attractively packed goods. Everything from quick-frozen food to washing powder, from shoe polish to new-laid eggs, from tinned fish to toothpaste can be bought there. All these things are displayed in such a way that people are often tempted to purchase things they don’t need. It’s a so-called marketing trick; that’s why it’s better to make a shopping list before going to a shop. With a shopping list you can avoid several costly mistakes like impulse purchases that will run up your grocery bill and extra trips to the store. A shopping list can also help you to avoid overbuying perishables so that you can eliminate wasteful spoilage. After a person has found everything he needs he takes his trolley and goes to the cash desk where a cashier reckons up bills on a cash register. There are often long queues there, but they do not spoil the general pleasure of visiting such shops.

If you are going to buy some clothes, electrical appliances, souvenirs and so on, the best place to visit is a department store. A department store is a store which sells many different kinds of goods, each in a separate department. Modern department stores serve the needs of the entire family. Usually people enjoy buying goods in such shops as they can make all their purchases under one roof. A typical department store occupies a large building with separate departments, located on a number of floors. Some departments provide special services among them there can be a travel agency or a chemist’s for example. These stores started in America more than 50 years ago, and then the idea was brought to European countries. And today we can hardly imagine our life without these stores; people really enjoy shopping there.

Besides supermarkets and department stores every sizeable town has a market where local people sell spare potatoes and carrots from their gardens and where larger traders arrive in big trucks that are overloaded with melons, oranges, bananas, etc. in order to sell them. One can find dried fruit, cheese, nuts, honey, cereals and other food in the markets as well. Markets are nice places to visit even if you don’t need to buy anything; go there early in the morning for the liveliest scenes and you can also certainly bargain a bit over prices.

If you don’t want to spend a lot of money you can watch newspaper sales ads or you may go to different sales: semi-annual sales and annual sales, half-price sales, clearance sales and many others.

Certainly some people dislike shopping and place their orders by the phone or order goods on the Internet (it’s becoming more and more popular). Today you can buy everything on the Internet starting with books and finishing with clothes, but it’s really not easy to find a store with the best prices and more convenient delivery hours because today there are so many stores and companies on the Internet. When you make a request they send you a courier or if you order a present for instance for your friend they can deliver it directly to his or her house. From time to time they offer a small gift or free delivery. Another reason why people prefer to use the Internet today to buy this or that thing is that it’s time-saving, because at present we want to save as much time as possible. In addition usually it’s cheaper to buy things on the Internet, you won’t face long waiting lines at each register, endless queues and deal with intrusive shop assistants. For all these reasons shopping on the Internet is a great relief for many people.

As for me, my experience as a shopper is very limited. As a rule I go shopping to the nearest shop to buy some bread, milk, yogurt, cheese, tea, etc. But even the idea of doing this little shopping drives me mad though I like delicious meals. When I return home it often turns out that I have forgotten to buy something my mother needs to prepare a dinner; even a shopping list doesn’t help, because I usually leave it on my table.

If I need to buy some clothes and shoes I prefer to do it with my mum or friends. And the worst shopping experience I had was when I went shopping with my dad. It’s a well-known fact that women are not very quick shoppers while men usually are. Women on the other hand seem less decisive when shopping; they enjoy spending hours walking around the shopping mall. Men are much more decisive; they don’t like to shop for a long time. Men usually know exactly what they want and go out to buy it, then come home and use it. Men tend to enjoy more doing than looking. So due to different shopping habits of men and women sometimes shopping together can become very challenging. It really happened so when I went shopping with my father. He wanted me to buy the first thing that I tried on and he became very nervous when I was saying that this or that thing was not suitable for me. So after an hour of shopping he became very tired and we returned home having bought nothing. Woman’s indecisiveness while shopping is nerve-wracking for men. Women tend to look at all of the choices and discuss all of them, but men just buy something and move on. So shopping habits are different for men and women and it should be taken into consideration.

And in the end I’d like to say that more often shopping is both a must and a pleasure; and certainly it’s an unavoidable thing!